Object Image

This Is Our Land [Soweto]

These posters were conceived in response to protests that erupted on September 3, 1984, in South Africa’s Vaal Triangle region over rent increases proposed by local town councils. The protests ignited rent boycotts in predominantly black townships such as Alexandria, Soweto, and Tembisa. By withholding rent, protestors refused to finance their own segregation from city centers and their relegation to the meager “matchbox” homes imposed on them by the apartheid state.

After designing the poster, Medu printed it commercially as a template (above) so that the names of specific townships could be inscribed through screen printing, as in the “Soweto” poster.

Credit: Gift of Artworkers Retirement S...

1984
Color offset lithograph on white wove paper
450.0 x 580.0mm
2018.443
Image and text courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago, 2019

Where you'll find this

Art Institute of Chicago
Permanent collection